#Martin Scorsese’s ‘Pretend It’s a City’ on Netlix Stars Essayist Fran Lebowitz

Some complaining, some humor, a whole lot of love story. That’s not a bad way to start out the new year, and it’s what you’ll get with Netflix’s limited documentary series Pretend It’s a City, directed by Martin Scorsese and featuring critic and essayist Fran Lebowitz.

Long-time New Yorker Lebowitz is both in love with Manhattan, and in love with grousing about it. Scorsese captures her running commentary as she walks the streets and takes on everything, from selling books in Times Square (“It’s not fair to the books”) to how riding the subway could anger even the Dalai Lama.

 

The limited-series documentary drops on January 8. Illuminating and funny, it’ll also help you remember a time when crowds were nothing to be scared of, and being social was an art in and of itself.